Acropolis CTP1 released to web...

jaimer — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 06:09:00 GMT

Acropolis is a set of components and tools (add-ins to Visual Studio) to help you build smart client applications..
To check out and download acropolis, you can go here. There is also a 12 min video there

Just a few immediate thoughts on what excites me about acropolis:

Framework-like features for building WPF LOB applications.

You get good structure out of the box -- hopefully leading to good architecture.
You get code out of the box (e.g. a Doc/View like we did in MFC) so you can focus on functionality instead of wiring File->Open ..

Toolability

So far, we have had great success with developer/designer collaboration between Blend and VS; now with Acropolis we show framework-like toolability for XAML as well as WPF's rich extensibility. {arguably that was proven with the

Acropolis shows our continued 'client investment'; in the midst of all this RIA buzz we have seen lately, Acropolis is a good reminder that for certain apps, a smart client architecture is still the best option.. don't compromise on experience if you don't have to..
The 'architecture decisions' they have made have been outstanding..

Though they target and are optimized for Windows Presentation Foundation, they are presentation agnostic, so you could possibly create or reuse a Windows Forms User Interface application and reused the business components.
Skinning, Theming, Databinding, Commanding.. All of the UI goodness we have seen as clients evolve come together in acropolis...

It has a cool codename ..

[Some of you might know Acropolis as an productization and WPF implementation of the Composite Application Block released by our Patterns & Practices team.. You are right, it is all that and a bag of chips... If you are a CAB user, no worries, the P&P team will release migration guidance to move to Acropolis. ]

Lastly, there are several sessions for Acroplis at TechEd; be sure to look for them...
Kathy Kam and David Hill are the speakers... If you are at TechEd and want to hook up with them, drop an email w/ your contact info and I can pass it along.. else, provide feedback in the forums or their blogs: Kathy , David's blog ..

I will get back to Acropolis soon - traveling this week..

[PS -- Claiming a Technorati Profile. maybe that will force/encourage me to blog a little more..
I got the 'blogging for dummies book' last week but have not read it, I have been hooked on Javascript Definitive Guide and it is a long, but very good one] ..

Jaime Rodriguez : acropolis

Acropolis CTP1 released to web...